Brazil police carry out more raids as part of riots probe

Brazil's federal police said on Tuesday they were carrying out new raids as part of an investigation into the Jan 8 riots in Brasilia, in which supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings.

They were serving 16 preventive arrest warrants and 22 search and seizure warrants ordered by the Supreme Court in seven states and the federal district, where Brasilia is located, a statement said.

"Investigations continue so that the law is fully observed," Justice Minister Flavio Dino wrote on Twitter after the federal police announcement. "This is the only way we will secure peace and democracy."

The raids represent the tenth phase of an operation launched in mid-January to identify people who participated in, funded or fostered the riots, in which a crowd protesting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's election victory invaded and ransacked the Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court.

Police did not disclose the names of those targeted in the raids, but said they were being investigated for crimes of "violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d'état, qualified damage, criminal association, incitement, destruction and deterioration of specially protected property".

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to testify before federal police about his role in the riots, agreeing to a request filed by the country's top public prosecutor, who said Bolsonaro's testimony was an "indispensable" step to clarifying what happened.

Bolsonaro has denied any responsibility for the riots, which recalled the 2021 storming of the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. He has argued that he was out of the country in self-imposed exiled in Florida, where he flew two days before his term ended without conceding defeat.